


Prelude

by ancestrallizard



Series: Reign of Arcfire (Dragon-Robin AU) [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-07 02:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14070510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancestrallizard/pseuds/ancestrallizard
Summary: A battle between a brave hero and a terrible monster.





	Prelude

**Author's Note:**

> My late birthday gift to myself, that being finishing this without worrying about it so much. It's short and super rough apologies

_The hero stood alone. The smoldering ruin of her country encircled her, ash and cinders twisting through the air and into her lungs like pollen. Her hair might have caught ablaze if it wasn’t tied away and down. Smoke spiraled into the tar black sky and obscured the source of her grief, indistinguishable from the dark but for six eyes that burned like fallen stars._

_She raised Falchion. The heirloom filtered the light of the ruin, purified it, and the monster flinched back from its gleam. She tightened her grip on the sword. “You’ll pay for this!”_

_The beast, a twisted facsimile of a dragon with too many limbs and too many eyes, crawled through the cinders, one forearm dragging limp. Its draconic jaws opened in a parody of laughter, coughing out a bone-rattling vibration than nearly knocked her to the ground. ‘There’s nowhere for you to run, tiny one! Your life ends here.”_

_The monster laughed again, and attacked._

_It’s main forelimb was broken, preventing flight, and something must have exhausted it before the hero arrived, as it would have tried dousing her in fire. Even so, the hero only barely dodged blows from its tail and horns as it dragged itself through the embers. It always managed to stay out of reach of Falchion. The heat and fumes made each parry more difficult than the last and sent shadows twisting across her vision._

_The surroundings seemed to be affecting the monster too. It’s breathing sharpened as movements became more sluggish and erratic. In a fit of desperation, it swung its head around and tried to catch her in its jaws, a sloppy, easily read move. It missed, and before it could retreat the hero rushed forward and plunged Falchion into its chest._

_It screamed, a sharp sound more reminiscent of a human than a dragon, and collapsed. The hero retreated, ready to strike again, but none seemed needed. It tried to push itself up, but collapsed, too exhausted even for death throes. It looked at her, red eyes luminous with the light of the fires. They shut, and the monster went still._

_The hero edged closer, waited for some sign of trickery. But the creature lay prone, scarcely breathing if it did at all._

_She put a hand on its head, just above its skeletal nostrils. No response._  
\----

“Aunt Robin?” 

The dragon didn’t move, prone as if in slumber. A white butterfly drifted over from the gardens and fluttered down on a horn. Lucina wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. It was the height of summer in Ylisse, and even in the courtyard, perfectly built to catch breezes and sheltered by a few sprawling trees, the heat was inescapable. Running all around the courtyard with her aunt playing Hero and Monster certainly hadn’t helped. 

She dropped ‘Falchion’, a toy sword she’d received for her sixth birthday barely a week ago, and shoved Robin’s head. “Wake up!” 

A red eye blinked open, then shut again. “Can’t. I’ve been slain.” 

She let out a huff of breath. Now that she really knew her Aunt wasn’t hurt, faint regret set in. Once Robin was ‘slain’, their games usually ended. To her credit, she never used it to get out of games early – even without flying, she ran circles around Lucina for a long time, though she’d been tagging her with her sword more quickly than she could when she was younger. “I didn’t hit you that hard.” 

“You really did.” Aunt Robin said, and stretched out on the grass, dark scales and feathers shimmering iridescent in the sunlight. “It drained all my strength. I’m catching my breath before I go work with your father.” 

Lucina’s heart sank at the confirmation. She began to climb up the dragon’s back, grasping fistfuls of feathers to steady herself. It was something she liked to do, even if her Aunt always refused to fly with her. They were hot under her hands, but she refused to let go. Maybe if she stayed on her back Aunt Robin wouldn’t leave. “Make the death throes more realistic, next time.” 

The dragon turned back to stare at her. “’Death throes?’ Where did you hear that?”

By hearing stories she probably shouldn’t have been listening to, but Lucina ignored the question. She pouted and looked as imploringly as possible at her Aunt. “Please stay longer?” 

Aunt Robin rolled to her feet, lifting one of her huge wings. Lucina stepped onto it, and her Aunt carefully lowered her to the ground. “I’m sorry, but I have to go. I promise I’ll stay longer next time, all right?” 

It wasn’t all right, not really, but she was too grown up to make a fuss by crying about it. Lucina made a ’come-here’ motion, and when her Aunt lowered her head, the young princess wrapped her arms around her jaws. “Bye.” 

The tip of her tail draped across Lucina’s shoulders. “Goodbye, tiny one. I’ll see you again soon.”

She hadn’t hit Aunt Robin that hard, but Lucina still resolved to be more careful next time. She didn’t ever want to hurt her Aunt, even by accident.

**Author's Note:**

> I hc dragon-robin as genderless and usually rolling with whatever gender people call them. Lucina sees Robin as Aunt Robin, so they're Aunt Robin here.
> 
> Again its very rough sorry, just wanted to write something not sad for a change.


End file.
